Perpetual Smile
by Sigfried27
Summary: Despite the happy sounding title, it's not all that happy. A few years ago, a young Naruto went missing. What happened to him during that time. Most likely a NaruShizune pairing.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N**: Whee, new story…ok enough cheering. Anyways, a while back I had ideas for some elements of what I wanted for my next story, and then recently, I had thought of the beginnings of a plot to incorporate them into. This story's premise is based off of the background story of a minor character in Suikoden 5. The pairing will most likely be a Naru/Shizune, though it will be a while until that point is reached.

Also, I realize that I am using the Roots organization incorrectly in this story, so I don't need you to tell me, if you don't like it, deal with it. Anyways, on to the story.

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Sarutobi sat in his office with his head resting on his hands. In front of him sat a young nine year old blonde boy with a small smile on his face. Typically, an adult would feel cheerful when they see a child smiling, but in this instance, it broke the old man's heart. The look in his eyes held so much pain and sadness in contrast to his smile. He inwardly cursed at himself, he had failed the boy. He had promised Arashi that he would protect the boy, and yet a few years ago, the boy had disappeared. He used to be such a cheerful child, and now, seeing what had become of him in that time killed him inside. He cursed the people who had done this to him.

It might surprise people to know that it was not the treatment of the villagers that had done this to him. Naruto had shown an amazing amount of resilience to the hatred of the villagers, even at such a young age. It had only strengthened his resolve to grow stronger so that they would all acknowledge him. No, it was not the villagers that had done this to him, what these people did to him was far worse.

'Roots' Sarutobi thought to himself, 'Damn them, damn them for turning such a cheerful and innocent boy into this.'

Roots, a special unit of the Anbu squad formed by the council during the age of the Great Shinobi Wars. Their purpose was to do the jobs that nobody else wanted to do, the darker jobs of the shinobi world. Nobody wanted to do these jobs, but this was the shinobi world, and jobs such as those needed to be done. The Yondaime had not liked the Roots unit, having not liked those kinds of jobs anyways. He had been an incredible man; through his efforts, the war ended quickly and Roots had not been needed to perform any jobs like that. An idealist to the end, he had been working on disbanding the Roots organization, hoping that the lands were not in need of an organization to perform tasks such as theirs. However, before he had succeeded, the Kyuubi had attacked, and the Yondaime had sacrificed his life. Sarutobi had retaken the position of Hokage, but with the leaf in such a weakened state, he knew that they would need to keep the Roots organization. As much as he detested the kind of work that they did, he knew that in these times, it had to be done, and an organization like theirs was necessary.

That had all changed recently. The Roots organization got greedy and began to secretly take jobs from other villages. At first, most of their missions had not involved the leaf, as most villages figured that they would not work against their own village, but they soon discovered that Roots would take any job from any village, even if it damaged the leaf village. Most jobs against the leaf were insignificant, and they remained undiscovered. Their first major job against the leaf was in the attempted kidnapping of the Hyuuga heir. They managed to set up the kidnapping attempt so that it looked as though in it all, the Hyuuga had wronged the cloud and as such the cloud demanded that the Hyuuga head be delivered to them, after all, to have the eyes of the Hyuuga head was much more valuable then that of their young heir. That plan had been turned against them though, as the Hyuuga sent Hizashi in Hiashi's stead. And then…there was the final mission of the Roots organization, the attempted assassination at the Sarutobi manor.

Roots had taken the job from the village hidden in the stone. They were still upset from the Great Shinobi Wars and were now planning for their revenge. Once the Hokage had been assassinated, they would launch their attack while they were left without a leader. For their role in the attack, Roots had been promised a great deal of money, as well as a position of power in their Stone controlled Leaf village. Roots snuck into the Sarutobi manor that night. There mission had simply been to assassinate the Sandaime, but they went a step beyond that and began to kill anyone that they found. The assassination attempt had failed, but the only surviving members of the Sarutobi clan were the Sandaime himself, his son Asuma and his young grandson Konohamaru.

Roots had been identified during the assassination attempt and thus were forced to flee Konoha. Sarutobi personally led a unit in the hunt for Roots, and they were soon found. Sarutobi and his group raided their hideout and had succeeded in eliminating them, but what Sarutobi had found there was something that he would never have expected.

_Flashback_

_Sarutobi had just finished off another of the Roots members when he looked over and saw the last person he would have expected to see in a place like this. Standing there watching the battle with a smile on his face was Naruto, the young container of the demon Kyuubi who had disappeared from the village five years ago. Sarutobi had begun to lose hope in finding the boy after having not found him over five years time, but here he stood, in front of him. _

_After getting over the shock that it was Naruto standing there, he became disturbed by the smile on Naruto's face. Did Naruto willingly join Roots? Was the Kyuubi in control and enjoying the killing occurring all around them? Sarutobi was wondering about all of these things when a woman snuck up behind him and attempted a killing blow, only to end up with her arm twisted behind her back and a kunai at her throat, all done to her by her victim. One doesn't get the Hokage title for nothing._

"_Why is Naruto here, and why is he smiling throughout all of this?" Sarutobi asked her. The woman smirked as she answered._

"_The brat? We took him about five years ago. Since he had no family and most people hated him, we figured no one would really miss him when we took him. I must say though, he has made quite a useful tool."_

"_What are you talking about? What did you do to him?"_

"_Anyone can suspect an assassination attempt from a ninja, but no one suspects a smiling child to be their assassin, the boy has made quite a number of assassinations for us."_

"_No, your lying, there is no way that Naruto would do all of that for you."_

"_Oh, at first he refused to do any of those missions for us, but after a bit of 'Persuasion' he decided that doing missions for us wasn't that bad."_

"_You would beat him and torture him until he did missions for you, didn't you?" Sarutobi was clenching his fists as he thought of what Naruto would have gone through._

"_My, how perceptive of you. You are correct, we had to beat him quite a bit to get him to agree to those missions."_

"_Then why is he smiling right now as people are killed around him? If he was beaten and forced to do these missions, why would he smile at all of this death?"_

"_It was all a part of his training. You see, no one has any suspicion of a happily smiling child, we had to train him to keep up that smile at all times. If he stopped smiling at any time, then we beat him. Now, he smiles perpetually, he is unable to make any expression other than smiling."_

_Sarutobi looked over at Naruto's face to see that small smile still stuck on his face, but this time, he noticed the tears rolling down his face past the smile._

_The woman began to laugh, feeling no guilt about what they had done to the boy. She didn't live very long after that laughter._

_End Flashback_

Sarutobi looked at Naruto as he sat in the chair across from his desk, his constant smile still present on his face. He remembered as a child when Naruto would give people his big foxy grin. It was far different from the small smile that adorned his face now. His old smile was one of happiness, his smile now would fool people who did not know what to look for, but once they knew what had happened, they could see the pain in the smile on his face. Sarutobi saw that pain now, and it pained him inside that the boy could be reduced to this. He wanted to do what he could to try and cheer the boy up, though he feared his efforts could have an adverse effect. He wanted to enroll Naruto in the ninja academy so that he could meet with kids his age, but he didn't know what kind of reaction Naruto might have to joining the academy.

"Naruto, how would you like to join the ninja academy?" He asked the boy.

Naruto stiffened at the mention of it, though the smile never left his face.

"Is there something wrong with going to the academy Naruto?"

"…I don't like killing…I don't want to kill anymore…"

Sarutobi was torn at what to do. Unfortunately, it was unlikely that Naruto would make friends with any civilian children, and a civilian life just was not possible for him. He needed money to support himself, and the likely hood of any of the villagers hiring him to work was slim. The only way that Naruto would be able to have a semi-decent life was if he became a ninja, but he knew that if the boy became a ninja, killing would be unavoidable. He didn't know what to do. He looked at Naruto and saw that he was just sitting there, staring at his hands.

"I know that my hands are clean, but every time that I look at them, I still see the blood on them." Naruto said. It was a common feeling for those who had taken there first lives, but the scene seemed slightly disturbing due to the smile on his face that would not fade.

'Damn those bastards, damn them for doing this to him.'

"Naruto, I can't promise you that if you become a ninja, you won't have to kill anyone, but I can promise you that if you do become a ninja, I will try to make sure that none of your missions require the use of lethal force."

Naruto considered this for a moment before coming to his decision. "I…will join the academy."

Sarutobi smiled, praying that this would work out well, and that it wouldn't make things worse.

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**A/N:** A short chapter, I know, but it is just simply an opening with an idea that I had. I don't know how long it will be between updates, because I have to consider where exactly I want to go with this story.

Also, don't give me nit-picky reviews about details. Yes, I know that the perpetual smile is unrealistic, or that it would probably be something that medic nins could cure, but just accept it as is and move on. I really don't want to deal with annoying reviews about small details like that.

Lastly, is Naruto too strong? No. He has simply killed some people caught off guard. It wouldn't take that much strength to stab an unsuspecting man in the back with a kunai. He may have some slight abilities, but nothing really overwhelming, or incredibly superior to others.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** Well…not as big of an initial response as I had hoped for this story, but then again, I've gotten used to the response from new chapters of Shadow Fox which is substantially larger, and it's not really fair to compare the results of my new story to my established one. Thanks to those of you who have checked this story out, so on to chapter two.

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Naruto sighed to himself as he sat atop the Hokage monument looking out over the village. It had been a year since Naruto entered the academy. The Hokage had hoped that Naruto would be able to make friends at the academy, but it was not meant to be. The parents of the children played a role in his isolation, pulling their kids away from him, and telling them not to talk to him. However, most of the children avoided him without any warning from their parents. He knew what they thought of him, Roots had taught him to observe his surroundings and a basic knowledge of how to read peoples emotions. Some of the students ignored him, taking his smile at face value and figuring him as the happy-go-lucky type without a care in the world. Others were slightly frightened of him, unnerved by the smile that never left his face.

Only one student had taken the time to ever pay any attention to him. Shortly after entering the class, he noticed a timid girl with bluish hair and pale lavender eyes. When he first entered the academy, she would constantly watch him from the corner of the room, but as time progressed, she became like many of the other students, somewhat afraid of him. He had figured out what he guessed to be the case with her. She had taken an interest in him when she had seen him smile no matter what happened to him. She had wanted to be able to hide her emotions like him. However, her interest turned to apprehension when she saw that he smiled even when bad things happened to other people. When other students failed at something, he smiled. When the class was informed that one of the student's parents had been killed on a mission, he smiled. She had grown slightly afraid of him when she had seen this.

Naruto was an average student in the class in terms of ability. He had some difficulty with some techniques, such as the kawarimi and bunshin jutsus, but seemed to have a talent for skills used for assassinations, such as the henge jutsu, and accuracy with thrown weapons.

'Will I ever be able to escape the role of an assassin?' Naruto thought to himself.

Roots had focused all of his training on assassination skills and keeping his smile up at all times. He had hated the time that he had spent with them, the constant beatings, the training he was forced into, the killing…he had never wanted any of these things, but he did not have a choice in the matter. He just wanted to be a normal child. He had spent his early years of life being hated by most of the villagers, and then had been forced to become an assassin before he was even six years old. Even now Roots had cursed him with being unable to live a normal life. His constant smile scared people away from him, he was all alone. Only once did he ever find people that had cared about him, but then…he didn't want to think about that right now.

He sighed as he stared at the palm of his hand. He watched as he made a small electric spark and watched it jump from one fingertip to the other across his hand. The electric abilities were a "gift" from Kyuubi. Once Naruto had started killing people, the Kyuubi made itself known in his excitement from the bloodshed. He had given Naruto power over lightning so that he could kill more people. Roots had found out about this ability and had trained him for its use in assassination. He stared at his hands, how many people had he killed by simply placing his hands on the backs of his unsuspecting victims and paralyzing them with electricity, followed by a simple stab with a kunai.

He slowly got up as he looked out over the village. It was time for him to go to the academy for his class.

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The past few years had held a number of surprises for Sarutobi. Assassination attempts, Roots destruction, finding Naruto. This day held yet another surprise as he stared across his desk at his two visitors. Across from him sat his old student Tsunade, a woman that he believed would never set foot in the Leaf village again. With her was a girl with black hair, probably around the age of eighteen or nineteen who seemed to be very upset over something. He watched as Tsunade told the girl whom she referred to as Shizune to get up and leave the room for a little while. The girl seemed very adamant about staying, but eventually gave in to Tsunade's demands and left the room. Tsunade had fixed her gaze with his as she began to speak.

"Sensei, let me get straight to the point. I heard about the attack that you led against Roots. I want you to tell me everything that you can about it, as well as any surviving members of the organization." Tsunade demanded, the resolve visible in her eyes.

"And why do you want to know?" Sarutobi replied. He was a bit nervous about where this conversation could lead.

"The girl who was with me is my apprentice, Shizune. About three years ago, her parents were murdered by a young boy. I took her on as my apprentice at that time. She wanted revenge on the boy that killed her parents, so we began to investigate. The only thing that we were able to find out is that Roots was behind the assassination."

Sarutobi began to worry at this point because he only knew of one young member of Roots, and he was really hoping at the moment that it was not him. He decided that the best course of action would be to try to dissuade the situation.

"Tsunade my student, do you really think that the path of revenge will make her happy?"

"Don't you preach to me about the path of revenge. Sometimes people deserve revenge against the people who wronged them. If I had a chance for revenge against the bastards that killed Nawaki and Dan, I guarantee you that I would have taken it. The boy that killed her parents was smiling when he killed them! The bastard enjoyed killing them! Are you going to tell me what I want to know or not!" Tsunade yelled at him.

Sarutobi was worried now, Naruto was most likely the one that they wanted to kill. He would not let them have Naruto, he had failed him before, and he was not going to fail him again.

"Tsunade, I advise that you get her off of this path before you both do something that you will regret. I will not tell you anything."

"You know who it was that did this, don't you? Why are you protecting him?"

"It is like I said before Tsunade, I don't want you making a mistake that you will both regret."

Tsunade glared at him a moment before she got up and walked towards the door. When she reached the door, she looked over her shoulder.

"We will find the boy eventually Sarutobi, I will let the girl have her revenge." And with that, she walked off. She and Shizune then left the leaf village, they were going to go search for more information.

Sarutobi sighed to himself, 'Naruto, I fear for your future safety, but I will do whatever I can to protect you.'

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Two years had passed and it was the day of the graduation exams at the academy. Iruka looked across the class at all of his students as he smiled, he was confident that they would pass this exam. His eyes soon found Naruto sitting all alone in the corner of the class and his smile turned into a frown. When he had first been told that he would be teaching the boy that held the demon that murdered his parents inside of him, he was upset. He wanted nothing to do with the boy. His feelings towards the boy only got worse as he witnessed the constant smile on his face. He was worried about the smile that stayed on his lips, even when bad things happened to other people. He had gone to talk to the Hokage about what he had witnessed, and that was when he was told about what Naruto had gone through in his past. He found himself unable to be angry at the boy after that. Who would do something like that to a child?

He began to watch Naruto more closely at that point in time. He began to search for the emotions visible in Naruto's eyes instead of seeing only the smile on his face. He watched as he struggled to learn combat techniques, trying his hardest so that he could succeed. He watched the sadness that flashed through his eyes every time that he easily completed a technique used for assassinations. He soon found himself slowly trying to reach out to the boy and help him. He began to help him work on using the academy's basic jutsu, as well as take him out to eat on occasion.

Iruka brought his attention back to the task at hand. One after one, the students passed the exam and he awarded them their headbands. Soon, it was Naruto's turn to take the exam, and Iruka let a small smile settle on his face. He knew that Naruto would be able to pass this. He had worked with Naruto and had seen that he was able to perform the bunshin jutsu. He watched as Naruto began to form the hand seal for the bunshin jutsu when he heard whispers coming from the hallway.

"Let's hope that monster doesn't pass the exam. Who knows what would happen if he became a ninja. He would probably go on some kind of killing spree."

Iruka could tell that Naruto had heard their comments because he lost his concentration and ended up with a clone that looked half dead. Iruka sighed, it wasn't really fair to Naruto, but he could not give Naruto another chance or it would look like he was playing favorites. Besides, he saw Naruto staring at his hands yet again and knew that he was completely out of it at the moment. Even if he had given him another chance, he would not be able to perform the technique at the moment.

"I am sorry Naruto, but you fail, please go back to your seat."

Iruka watched with a heavy heart as Naruto walked back to his seat, continuing to stare at his hands.

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That night found Naruto sitting in a forest clearing, staring at the scroll that he had stolen in front of him. He had been approached one of his teachers, Mizuki, after he had failed the exam and told him of another way to pass the exam. Naruto had managed to steal the scroll of forbidden seals and looked at its contents. He had just finished practicing a technique called kage bunshin when he was found by his teacher, Iruka.

"Naruto, what are you doing, why did you steal that scroll?"

"Mizuki-sensei said that if I could learn a technique from this scroll, then I could become a gennin. So, do you want to see the new technique that I learned?"

Iruka began to realize what was going on, and the next thing that Naruto knew, Iruka had shielded him with his body as a large shuriken had embedded itself into his back.

"Naruto, don't give Mizuki the scroll, run away and save yourself." Iruka said to him. Mizuki then started laughing.

"Iruka, you are protecting the beast that killed your parents? What would they think of you if they saw this."

"Naruto is not the one that killed my parents. They would be happy to see me protecting him. No child should have to go through what he has been through."

"Ah yes, what he has been through. Naruto, would you like to know why everyone hates you?"

"Mizuki, that knowledge is forbidden!" Iruka shouted.

"You are…"

"The vessel of Kyuubi, a tool of death, a murderer, an assassin, the list goes on. That's why people hate me." Naruto replied, cutting Mizuki off.

Mizuki was a bit worried by the smile that was on the boys face as he declared this. Hell, the boy had not stopped smiling since this whole ordeal had started. How he hated that smile, he was going to wipe that smile off of the boys face for good.

"Well, since you already know what you are, how about I put you out of your misery."

Mizuki charged forward and plunged a kunai into the boy's chest, only for him to disappear in a burst of smoke.

"A kage bunshin?" Mizuki thought aloud. He didn't have time to react as he felt a small hand placed on the middle of his back. Naruto then proceeded to push electricity into his body. The sudden jolt of electricity had caused his heart to beat far to fast, and his heart gave way as it exploded and Mizuki's lifeless corpse fell to the ground.

"Naruto…" Iruka reached out to the boy who was now violently shaking.

"I did it again…I killed someone again…is that all that I can do?"

"No Naruto, that is not all that you can do, you are not just some tool of death."

"I didn't mean to put that much chakra into the technique, the electricity got out of control and it killed him…I didn't want to kill him."

"I know Naruto…I know…" Iruka said as he pulled the boy into a hug.

Naruto lost it and proceeded to break down and cry. Iruka did his hardest to try to console the sobbing boy. Naruto continued to cry until he fell asleep in Iruka's arms.

The smile never left his face.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: **Well, sorry for the wait, but I have been busy with school work, so updates for all of my stories will be slow for a bit. Well, I don't really have much to say today, so on with the story.

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_A boy was standing in the middle of a room staring down at the floor and shaking slightly, in front of him where two adults with a look of worry on their face. One was a beautiful woman with long, silky black hair and hazel eyes; she had an air of elegance around her that only complemented her beauty. Beside her stood a tall man with short black hair that was slightly spiky and light blue eyes. The two of them watched the boy that stood before them with a look of worry marring their features._

"_Kyoshi-kun, what's wrong? Is there anything that we can do to help?" The woman asked the boy._

_As the two of them worried over the boy, neither of them were prepared for when the boy lunged towards them, driving a kunai into the heart of the man. He looked down in shock at the boy as he took a few pained breaths before the breathing stopped and his lifeless corpse fell to the ground._

_The woman was so shocked that she never noticed the boy moving towards her till she had a kunai embedded in her in the same manner as the man. She looked down towards the boy, the look of shock still stuck on her face as she gasps out her last words._

"_Why…Kyoshi-kun…why?"_

_She watched the boys smiling face, but also saw the tears running down his face as he retracted the kunai._

"_I'm sorry…I'm so sorry, please forgive me." The boy choked out._

_The woman wasn't able to ask any more questions as the last of her life was extinguished. Her body collapsed on the floor beside the man. The boy stood still staring at the floor for a moment when he heard a gasp. He looked over towards the doorway to see a small girl with short black hair with her hand over her mouth. _

"_Mom…Dad…no…"_

_The boy looked towards her but could not say anything. There was nothing in his orders involving the girl, so he didn't want to hurt her. It was the least he could do for them. The girl watched as the boy turned around and disappeared from her sight. The last thing that she saw was the smile on his face. She clenched her fist as she swore that she would avenge her parents by killing this boy, even if it was the last thing she ever did._

_She never noticed the teardrops that were left in the air as the boy disappeared._

Naruto woke up with a start, his whole body drenched in sweat. It was that dream again. He could never forget the events of that night, and he doubted that he ever would. He stared at his hands for a moment before he began to sob into his hands.

"Hanzo-san, Shizuko-san, I am so sorry, please forgive me."

He continued to cry through the night, with no one there to comfort him.

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The night ended and the next day rolled around. It was the day of the assignment of genin teams, and Naruto found himself sitting in a classroom at the academy, waiting for Iruka to come to tell everyone their new teams. He watched as all the other students chatted away with their friends while he sat at the back of the classroom all alone.

As he sat at his seat, he tried to forget about the memories from his dream. He found himself idly fingering the weapon that was secured at his waist and for once, the smile on his face actually matched the look in his eyes. The weapon was a gift to him on his last birthday from the Sandaime. He appreciated the thought that the Sandaime put into the weapon.

The weapon was a three section staff. The staff sections were made out of metal so that he could channel an electric current through them. It was almost as if the weapon was custom made for him. What Naruto didn't know was that the staff was custom made for him, a custom order that Sarutobi had requested from the weapons shop. He was glad that the old man got him a weapon that was not automatically lethal, like a sword. Sure, his staff could be used to kill somebody, but for the most part, to do so would take a conscious effort on his part.

As Naruto reminisced about some of his few happy memories, Iruka emerged through the doorway. He gave a concerned glance towards Naruto, wondering if he was still bothered about what happened last night. He gave a sigh of relief as he saw that Naruto seemed to be faring better today, or he had at the least pushed the incident towards the back of his mind. After seeing that Naruto was relatively fine, he proceeded to read through the list of teams.

"Team seven: Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura…" Iruka was cut off by a loud squeal that erupted in the classroom courtesy of one pink haired kunoichi.

Sakura was overjoyed; she would be on a team with Sasuke, her one and only true love. There was almost nothing that could ruin her good mood.

"…and Uzumaki Naruto."

And with that, Sakura's good mood was ruined. Of the few things that could ruin her good mood, this was one of them. Of all the people that could be put on her team, why did it have to be Naruto? The boy scared the shit out of her.

Iruka continued to read off the rest of the teams, and then left as the jounin sensei's arrived to pick up there new teams, all but one.

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Kakashi could be found once again staring at the memorial stone. He decided to pay his respects to his friend before he had to go and meet with his new students. He doubted that this team would be much different then any of the other teams was supposed to teach, they would probably fail just like the rest of them. It was a shame really, since the Uchiha had shown so much promise as a ninja, but he was so caught up in revenge that the odds of him passing his test were slim.

Haruno Sakura, she had placed as the top kunoichi in her class, but Kakashi knew better then to simply trust the academy results. She had excelled in tests, but simply had average performance in all practical exercises. That was all well and good, but all of the knowledge for those tests would get you nowhere in the field. Maybe she would show some promise in the future, but at the moment, his expectations of her were low.

Uzumaki Naruto, now there was one that he could not fully figure out. He had seemed to perform at an average level throughout the academy, except when it came to all skills related to assassination, those skills he excelled at. Kakashi wasn't sure why, but he felt that there was probably more to Naruto then the academy records showed.

Oh well, not like it really mattered much. Tomorrow they would fail, and then things would be back to normal for him. It had been about two and a half hours since he was supposed to go pick them up, not to bad for a first day he supposed. With one last glance at the stone, he headed towards the academy to pick up his new students.

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Kakashi entered the room and smiled under his mask as he saw the looks on the faces of his new students. They were so easily irritated by his lateness. He was thrown for a bit of a loop though when he saw the smile on the face of the blonde boy. He quickly shook it off as he looked towards his students once again.

"Alright team, meet me up on the roof, we will continue up there." Kakashi told them, and with that, he disappeared in a plume of smoke. He reappeared on the roof, but was shocked to find Naruto there a moment later, also with a cloud of smoke signifying that he had used the shunshin jutsu.

"Naruto, you know the shunshin jutsu?" Kakashi asked.

Naruto hesitated for a moment; he really didn't feel like explaining to his new sensei that Roots had taught him the shunshin jutsu so that he would be able to escape quickly after assassinations. Luckily, before Kakashi could press the issue, Sasuke and Sakura arrived on the roof. Kakashi pushed the thought to the back of his mind and decided to proceed with introductions.

"Well everyone, today we are going to go through some introductions. Tell us your name, likes, dislikes, dreams, things of the like." Kakashi told his new students.

"Sensei, how about you go first to show us how it is done?" Sakura asked him.

'Geeze, it is not really a hard concept to understand. And she is supposed to be the smart one.' Kakashi thought to himself, but decided to answer anyways. "My name is Hatake Kakashi, as for my likes and dislikes…I don't feel like telling you. As for my dreams…I don't feel like telling you that either." Kakashi answered. He watched amused at the faces his students made due to his introduction, but once again, he was a bit thrown off by the smile on the blonde boys face. Didn't anything ever get to this kid? "Alright, now the Uchiha."

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I don't like much, and I dislike a lot of things. My dream…no, my ambition, is to kill a certain man." Sasuke gave his introduction. Kakashi merely sighed, he wasn't really surprised.

"Alright, now you, the one with the cotton candy hair."

Sakura glared at him before she gave up and began. "My name is Haruno Sakura. The things I like… (Giggle). My dream is… (Squeal). My dislikes are people that make fun of my hair color." She said as she added a glare towards Kakashi at the end. Kakashi sighed again, watching her repeatedly stare at Sasuke while giggling and blushing. He really did not want to deal with some teenage girl and her childhood crushes, but then again, they would all probably fail tomorrow and he wouldn't have to deal with it.

"Now you with the smile."

Naruto winced at the comment, something that didn't go unnoticed by Kakashi. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto. My likes…" Naruto's thoughts trailed to a certain family before he shook the thoughts out of his mind. They were gone. "I guess the Sandaime and Iruka-sensei. My dislikes are…my past. I don't really know what my dreams are yet."

Kakashi wondered what he meant when he talked about disliking his past. He could only assume that he meant his treatment from the villagers throughout his life. There was more to Naruto then he initially thought. He would have to look into him later on. He pushed those thoughts aside as he proceeded to explain to the three of them that tomorrow they would take their official genin test before he left with another shunshin jutsu.

Naruto began to leave as well when he was stopped by Sasuke.

"When did you learn the shunshin jutsu? Who taught it to you?"

"I don't really feel like talking about it." Naruto replied.

Sasuke might have accepted this answer if it weren't for the smile that graced his face as he refused him the knowledge he desired. Naruto was mocking him, laughing at the fact that he knew something that he didn't know himself. He grabbed Naruto's shoulder and jerked him around to face him, but Naruto proceeded to form some hand seal and then disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Sasuke growled at his disappearance. He would find out what he wanted to know eventually.

----------

The next day found three young genin hopefuls waiting at a training ground for their sensei to arrive. Three hours later, said sensei finally arrived and explained to his potential team the rules of the bell test.

"You all have until noon, starting…now." Kakashi told the three of them, and the three of them quickly shot off to hide.

Kakashi stood in the middle of the training ground, gauging where his students would be as he wondered which one would be the first to attack. He found Sasuke and Sakura's positions fairly easily, although he gave them credit in that they were hiding well for their rank. What had him mildly concerned was the fact that he was unable to pinpoint Naruto's position. He was a jounin, he should be easily able to locate where a genin was hiding. He was about to try harder to locate Naruto when Sasuke launched an attack from the bushes.

The two of them had an exchange of taijutsu and Kakashi was impressed with Sasuke's performance, it was better then that of most academy students, and Sasuke even managed to almost get a bell before Kakashi pulled back. Sasuke then proceeded to launch a Katon Goukakyuu jutsu. Kakashi was again impressed that a genin would have the chakra capacity for such a technique, but he supposed that fire jutsu did tend to be the Uchiha's specialty. However, none of this really mattered since Sasuke was attacking him alone, Kakashi merely sighed as he made some quick hand seals while hidden by the dust and smoke, and proceeded to pull Sasuke into the ground up to his neck. Pleased with his work, he went out to search for the other two.

Sakura had been easy enough to take out. A simple genjutsu of Sasuke on the verge of death resulted in her collapsing unconscious. He was a bit disappointed that she had been so easily fooled, but oh well. There was only one left, and they only had about an hour before all three of them failed. He began to search for Naruto when suddenly three kunai came flying towards him. His years of experience kicked in and he managed to dodge two of them, but the third managed to leave a small cut on his leg.

'Hmmm, I never thought that any of them would actually manage to land a hit on me, but something is not right here. He should not have been able to hide from me when he is that close, and he shouldn't have been able to surprise me. What is it about Naruto that I am missing?' Kakashi thought to himself.

Kakashi began to head in the direction that the kunai had come from in his search for Naruto. After attacking, Naruto had fled since his positions was compromised, and that made it easier to track him. Eventually, Kakashi managed to catch him and the two of them faced off in a clearing of the training ground.

'Alright, you're very talented at stealth, but let's see how well you fight once you have actually been caught.' Kakashi thought to himself as he dropped into his taijutsu stance. Likewise, Naruto began to settle into his taijutsu stance and Kakashi's visible eye widened.

'That stance, it is almost like the Jyuuken, but there is no way that Naruto knows the Jyuuken style. Just what are you thinking Naruto?'

Naruto launched himself towards Kakashi and began to strike in what seemed like a graceful dance. He spun and twisted, launching strikes at various points on Kakashi's body, but Kakashi couldn't figure out what Naruto was thinking. He wasn't a Hyuuga, so he obviously couldn't see his tenketsu, but the spots that he aimed for made no sense. He would occasionally attempt to hit a pressure point, but most of his attacks were aimed at his limbs. Not only that, but most of his attacks were either open palm strikes, or strikes with only two fingers, neither of which would do much damage to his limbs. What was Naruto planning?

It was then that he noticed something about Naruto's strikes. He was not expelling chakra in his strikes, but there was something more to them. He looked closely and noticed that there was a small spark of electricity on his fingertips. Kakashi had never seen anything like this style and was a bit intrigued at what it could do. He wanted to see what it could do, and since he was a jounin and Naruto was only a genin, he figured that he could risk taking a blow to one of his limbs to see what Naruto was attempting. He let one of Naruto's strikes slip past his guard and hit him on his upper leg. He was a bit surprised when he felt a small jolt that caused his leg to give a strong twitch, breaking his stance. Naruto capitalized quickly with a palm strike directed at his heart, his hand covered in with electric sparks. His palm struck Kakashi, only to find a log in his place as Kakashi managed to perform a kawarimi at the last second.

'Shit, that strike could have actually killed me had it connected. I shouldn't have underestimated him and let him land a blow.' Kakashi thought to himself. As he regrouped, he considered what he could determine about Naruto's taijutsu style.

'He starts with graceful, flowing movements so that he can evade enemy attacks while trying to find an opening. He then proceeds to attack at points along the limbs that, when hit with an electric shock, cause a strong twitch in the muscle of the targeted limb.' He began to think of the effects that the muscle twitches could have in battle. To one fairly unskilled in taijutsu, it would not affect them all that much. However, to people like Maito Gai or a well versed Hyuuga, whose taijutsu revolved around their form and stance, a simple muscle twitch could be disastrous. A simple twitch of a muscle would typically break their stance, leaving them vulnerable while they try to get back into their form. In this way, Naruto's taijutsu style basically got more effective the more well versed in taijutsu his opponent was. He was fairly certain that this style was developed with assassination in mind, as the goal was to break your opponent's stance long enough for you to launch a killing blow.

This style only managed to raise further questions about Naruto in Kakashi's eyes. First off, He didn't know how Naruto managed to create those electrical sparks that he used for his strikes. As far as he knew, there was no jutsu that could simply allow one to control an element. There were jutsu that formed an element into something else, but not for the control over an element that Naruto was exhibiting. Second, he was sure that the ideas behind that taijutsu style were to advanced for an academy student to have developed on his own, but he had never seen anyone else use a style like that since they lacked the element control that Naruto seemed to posses. Kakashi began to realize that there was far more to Naruto then he had initially thought.

At that point, the bell rang, signifying the end of the test. Kakashi gathered all three of them, then he proceeded to tie Sakura to the post while handing out lunches to both Sasuke and Naruto. After explaining to them the purpose of the test, he told them that he would give them one more chance, and told both Naruto and Sasuke that they were not allowed to give Sakura any food.

Kakashi watched the scene unfold to see if these three were any different then the rest of the teams that he had failed. He saw Naruto get up to give some of his food to Sakura, and he wondered if just this once, one of his teams would pass his test. However, the actions of Sakura and Sasuke were not what he had hoped for.

"Damn it loser, don't feed her. I am not going to fail because some idiot decided to be a nice guy." Sasuke hissed at Naruto.

"Yeah, how could you even think of doing something like this and making Sasuke-kun fail. What are you, stupid?" Sakura said in an attempt to agree with her crush.

Kakashi sighed. Naruto seemed to at least understand the concept of teamwork a bit, but Sasuke and Sakura just weren't getting it. They only had one more chance, and if they couldn't get it right…

----------

At about this point, Kakashi figured that he could safely say that this team was going to fail his test. They were running out of time, and had still made no effort at working as a team. Naruto had made a small attempt at asking the others to help him, but that went over no better then his earlier attempt at teamwork with the lunch boxes. Sasuke still refused help, and Sakura would only help Sasuke. If he could have passed just Naruto, he would have, but it was either pass as a team or fail as a team, and unfortunately for Naruto, it looked like he was going to be stuck in the latter of the two.

Kakashi was about ready to announce the failure of the new team, when suddenly, all three of them had proceeded to attack him together. He was surprised at the sudden teamwork between the three. For three people that would not work together before, they all seemed to work together perfectly…a bit too perfectly. Kakashi continued to dodge their attacks until an opening appeared and he managed to strike Sasuke. Sasuke stumbled back a bit before he burst into a cloud of smoke. Once "Sasuke" disappeared, Naruto and "Sakura" fell back and got away from Kakashi.

'A kage bunshin with a henge…Naruto continues to surprise me. I suppose that this is as close to teamwork as there is going to be with them.' Kakashi thought to himself. He thought things over for awhile before he made a decision. He was probably going to regret this later, but he knew that the council would whine to the Hokage if their precious Uchiha was failed, and he was curious to find out more about Naruto. Besides, at least one of them managed to understand teamwork, maybe the others would pick it up along the way.

The three genin hopefuls found themselves in front of Kakashi as they all waited in nervous anticipation. Kakashi held all of their gazes for a moment before he spoke.

"Well, in all honesty, I probably shouldn't pass you since two of you didn't show any teamwork at all, but since Naruto attempted to work as a team, I will let you all pass…barely."

The three of them stared at him for a moment, before two of them turned to glance at the smiling blonde with none too happy looks on their face for him having made them look bad.

After being informed when and where to meet the next day, the newly formed team split up to go their separate ways…with the exception of Sakura who went Sasuke's way.

----------

Naruto found himself wandering for a while before he ended up at one of the shinobi training grounds. He really didn't feel like going home. Since there was no one else at his home, then there was nothing to do, and if there was nothing to do, then the memories came flooding back into his mind. He didn't want to go through that, so he decided that he would spend some time training to keep his mind occupied.

After spending a few hours training with his staff and various electric techniques, he felt a bit tired so he lied down on the ground and took some time to rest.

He had been so absorbed in his training that he had failed to notice a pair of pearl white eyes watching him intently. She was amazed by some of the things that this boy could manage to do, but what captivated her most was his face. As she saw the boy rest on the ground, she decided to make her presence known as she walked out towards the boy.

"Why do you hide your emotions with that smile?" The girl asked him.

Naruto looked at the girl with a bit of confusion in his eyes before she spoke again.

"You may be able to fool others with that smile, but nothing can be hidden from my eyes." She stated as he looked into her white eyes.

He watched her for a moment before he hung his head and answered, "It wasn't my choice."

"And how could it not be your choice?" She asked.

"I don't feel like talking about it. All you need to know is that I am unable to do anything but smile."

The girl examined his face for a moment looking for any sign that he was lying, but was unable to find anything that would suggest that he wasn't telling the truth. She wondered what it would be like to be unable to stop smiling. It was something that didn't sound bad, but in reality would have been something that would make you miserable.

She didn't know what it was about this boy, but she found herself drawn to him. Usually, she didn't care for much outside of clan matters; that was how she was raised to act. Deep down, she resented that fact a bit, knowing that she was brought up to care about little outside the clan. She wondered if this boy had gone through something similar, for she doubted that he was just born unable to stop smiling. Maybe this boy was a lot like her in some ways: having someone else raise you to be what they want, living life hiding behind a mask.

"So, what's your name?" The girl asked him.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto, how about you?"

"My name is Hyuuga Hanabi."

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**A/N:** To anyone who at any point thought that it was Hinata at the end, slap yourself. You should know better, I don't use Hinata in my stories. Anyways, after losing portions of this chapter twice, I finally managed to finish it. At least I managed to update something. To all of those who are reading this and my story "Shadow Fox," sorry, but updates will continue to be slow as my work load stays fairly high.

Anyways, I will try to update when I can, and I hope that you all enjoyed this chapter.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: **Yes, it has been a long time. Yes, this is not a long chapter, and it is mostly filler, but the point is that it is something. I could try to add more to this particular chapter, but then there would be no telling how long it would be before I actually post an update. Sorry folks, but I just don't update frequently anymore. Nothing I have started is dead, but the update speed is slow, not to mention that I have a fair amount of school work.

And while I dislike being an advertiser, I did promise someone that I would promote their site, the "Unlimited Fan-Works." It is a simple forum in which you can discuss anime, preview fanfics, etc... If you happen to enjoy things like that, or even if you're just bored need a way to pass time, then please give it a try. It is relatively new, so there isn't too much activity yet, so please go there and start some activity. Start some discussion topics, comment on peoples work, things like that. And if it is any incentive for some people to join, then I'll say this: I now tend to update in bits and pieces on forums to get opinions, and you're likely to read portions of any of my stories on the boards far earlier then you can read them in completed form here. I will place the link for the site in my profile, so please give it a try.

And if you are a TFF member…cut Zeni some slack and try to help out over there, show some support. Anyways, enough said, moving on to the story.

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_Two children were running around playing a game, enjoying themselves, when they collapsed to the ground, laughing as they lay down to rest. One was an older child with short black hair, while the other was a child with bright blonde hair and shining blue eyes. As the two lie down, the girl turned towards the boy and began to speak._

"_This is fun, I never had many people to play these games with when I was your age."_

_The boy turned his smiling face towards her and responded, "I haven't had many opportunities to play like this either; it is fun."_

"_I am glad that you are here with us now, I've enjoyed having you here with us."_

"_So have I, you've all been so nice to me, I wish that I was really part of this family." The boy responded as he stared out into the sky._

"_Kyoshi-kun, you are already like a member of our family, does having the same family name really make a difference?"_

"_But I want people to know that I am a member of this family, because I am happy here with you all."_

_The two sat in silence for a moment staring at the sky when the boy suddenly spoke again._

"_I've got it!" He proclaimed._

"_What is it Kyoshi-kun?" The girl asked._

"_When I grow up, I am going to marry Shizune-chan; then I will really be a member of this family." The boy proclaimed happily._

_The girl laughed for a moment before she responded, "Well, you are a pretty cute kid, so we'll see about that when your older."_

_The two lie there a while longer before a woman came and called to the two of them to come back._

_The scene then changed to that of the same boy, standing over two dead adults, kunai in hand while the girl stood in the doorway, horrified by the whole scene. The boy looked at the girl and disappeared, a smile on his face._

Shizune sat up with a start, sweating profusely and breathing heavily.

'It's that dream again. I swear, I will kill that bastard for what he did to mom and dad.' She thought to herself. 'Still, the beginning of that dream was a bit strange. Usually I just see when he killed mom and dad, why am I remembering things like that?'

----------

Currently, the shrill voice of an angry woman rang could be heard throughout the hokage tower.

"You horrible little monster! Look what you have done to my poor little baby!" The woman said as she pointed at the motionless ball of fur in Naruto's arms that resembled a cat. Naruto finally managed to lift his gaze from the floor to the woman as he spoke.

"I'm sorry, it was an accident…" He managed to utter in a soft, meek tone of voice.

Everyone standing in the room watched as the woman walked up to Naruto, and then they all winced as the sound from a hard slap reverberated throughout the room.

"Are you trying to patronize me? You sit there and tell me you are sorry, and yet you keep that damn smile on your face. You were probably happy to kill my poor little baby you monster!" She yelled at him.

'This is what happens when you sneak up on someone trained to be an assassin…' Kakashi thought. As he watched the Sandaime try to calm down the irate woman, he thought back to the conversation that he had with Sarutobi regarding his student.

----------

_Kakashi had decided to meet with the hokage today to see if he could answer any of the questions that he had regarding a certain blonde student of his. He was still very curious about Naruto's abilities, and he had a growing concern regarding his lack of changing facial expressions._

"_Hello Kakashi, what is it that you have come to see me about today?" The old man questioned him._

"_Well, I was hoping that you might have some information regarding a certain student of mine."_

"_And I take it that the one that you want information on is the smiling blonde one." The hokage answered as he gazed out the window. "I failed to protect him and this is the result of my failure."_

"_You're not really answering my question with that. I want to know why he is this way so that I might know whether or not I should be cautious regarding him."_

"_Kakashi, tell me, what was your childhood like?" Sarutobi questioned him._

"_I don't see how this has anything to do with what I am asking."_

"_Please humor me for now, what was your childhood like?" Sarutobi inquired once again._

_Kakashi sighed, but answered none the less, "I felt alone most of the time, having lost my parents. I was considered a genius and chose to become a ninja early, and in doing so lost most of my childhood. I was forced to grow up, did things that no child should have to do, and began to take lives."_

"_Well, imagine a childhood like that, only without it being your choice to become a ninja, and being beaten if you refuse. Imagine being forced to smile at all times or being beaten. Imagine that all of your missions were assassinations. Imagine all of these combined with your childhood, and you pretty much have what Naruto's childhood was."_

----------

After that, the hokage had explained to him exactly what Naruto had gone through, and he had to say that the truth about Naruto's past was far worse then he had imagined. He had always thought that he had a difficult childhood, but what Naruto had been through was worse. To have been alone for all this time, to have been brainwashed like this before even knowing what human warmth was like.

He had watched Naruto as they had done their simple D-ranked missions, and could see that Naruto was the only one that didn't seem to mind performing them. While Sasuke and Sakura complained about the menial tasks that they were doing, Naruto seemed to be happy simply performing these everyday tasks.

Today, they had been searching for this woman's cat. The cat was a rather tricky one and had been able to hide from them for a while. When his team got close to him, he decided to ambush them to confuse them, and then run away while they were confused. Unfortunately for the cat, to ambush one trained as an assassin was a bad idea. As the cat had leapt out to attack him, Naruto had shoved his palm into the cat as sparks gathered around his hand. The cat had not survived the electricity pumped into his body.

As Kakashi's thoughts about the mission wrapped up, he noticed that the hokage had finally managed to calm the woman down a little bit, though she was still rather upset with Naruto.

"I don't want this monster assigned to any missions of mine ever again." She said as she stormed out of the hokage's office.

As the hokage began to list other missions that team seven could be assigned, Kakashi watched the expression on Naruto's face while Sakura and Sasuke tried to convince the Sandaime that they were ready for a higher ranked mission. He knew that to look towards his mouth was pointless, so instead he looked towards his eyes and saw the look of sadness hidden therein. He wanted to do something for the boy, but he didn't know of anything that he could do for him. His thoughts were broken as Sarutobi addressed him.

"Kakashi, do you think that your team is ready for a C-ranked mission?"

"Yes, I believe that they can handle a C-ranked mission hokage-sama." Kakashi replied.

Sarutobi began to look through the C-ranked missions available. He had agreed to give them a C-ranked mission, but he also wanted to keep his promise to Naruto to avoid giving him missions that would require killing. The only thing that he could find at the moment was an escort mission. Killing could occur, but it was not necessary. He gave an apologetic look towards Naruto before he continued.

"I have a C-rank mission here to escort a bridge builder back to the Wave Country."

An older man who was most likely drunk stumbled into the room at this point. He looked at the ninja who were assigned to protect him and was not happy with what he saw.

"Hey, are you telling me that these brats are the ones who are going to protect me on this trip, don't make me laugh."

Sarutobi began trying to appease the man as he spoke to him "They may be young, but I assure you that they are quite skilled for their age, and in addition, their teacher will also be accompanying you, so you have nothing to worry about."

"That guy over there with only one visible eye? He doesn't look like the most reliable type to me. And you expect me to believe that these kids can protect me, bah!"

"Sir, you are only paying for a C-rank mission and as such, we feel that this team will suffice. In addition, that unreliable man is one of our finest ninja, so you are lucky to have him for the rate that you are paying." Sarutobi replied

The bridge builder looked a bit uneasy, but let the argument drop. "Well, I suppose that I will believe your words for now. The name is Tazuna, expert bridge builder."

They all listened to an outline of the mission before Kakashi told them a time to meet the next day to set out on their mission.

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**A/N:** A lot of people have asked for a reference regarding Naruto's smile and what it looks like. Ideally, the best description would be for those who have played Suikoden V as the story is based of the character Sagiri from that game. However, since few of you have probably played it, then I suppose the suggestion of Gin from Bleach can fit, though I intended it to be less smirk-like than his.


End file.
